Planet Unrealm - Notes, etc.

[WAnk]

lol, damn

well, i left for a few days and look what happened. that thread is huge!

we have a pretty godly group here, what kind of conflict will be large enough to combat? i am just worried, i mean conflict is what drives a good story, and with a chick who can heal anything and raise the dead, a warrior who is unstoppable and can go beserker once a day and bloodrage 3 times a day, 10 of these cyst things between us, and the support of at least one goddess there isn't really anything i can forsee that will stop us. but anyways, lol

Natalya- actually was brought up in the courts of some country (i don't remember if we have any countries in the world, so i will let you guys decide. make it one with a nice big forest and some snow at least ) she wasn't a queen or anything, but she did hold some power, enough that she had obligations and stuff she didn't want at least. basically she is a female version of Silk from the Belgariad, although a lot more attractive. good with daggers, or a rapier if she has one around. she doesn't carry a sword or anything it for the sake of agility and stealth, only what she can carry on her person. sneaky, witty, crafty, blah blah, you all know what she is like. she is a stereotypical fantasy character sorry for the lack of creativity, i just had david eddings on the mind when i saw the thread......

 

[Cammy]

The Unrealm is a land of fantasy, and all "real" conventional standards should be kept to a minimum. I'd like to see some creativity in all fields, so that includes whatever god/esses the characters serve.

Wolf, call me dumb , but I'm afraid I'm not quite sure what you mean. Do you mean that it would be better if we don't bring in gods and goddesses from the mythologies of the 'real' world, but instead use our 'creativity' to come up with, to invent various new gods? Or do you mean that you would prefer we let the story be limited to the 'mortal' world and leave out the gods (who might possibly become too much of a good thing and therefore ruin the story) so that our heroes will have to exercise all the 'creativity' they have to handle various situations? Please enlighten me, Master Wolf. Thank you.

Cammy - do you mind taking Du-de-es-ta off of my hands?

That's perfectly fine with me, though honestly speaking I don't really like the idea of each character being exclusively controlled by one contributor (usually the creator) in a written RPG of this nature. I far prefer a more 'open' approach whereby anyone can use and develop upon anyone else's character in advancing the story (provided, of course, that the character is not distorted too far out of character without a good reason). That is in fact part of the fun of a written RPG -- to see what someone else will add to your character. I'm sure you've been quite pleasantly surprised to find that I've decided to make Du-de-es-ta Chun-Li's brother. And I'm sure Wolf wouldn't mind either if I gave his character a soft, tender side.

Ah, well, guess I'll talk about the Eye(s) of The Golden Dragon in a future post. For now, Wolf and WAnk, don't forget that Wolfram's in love with Chun-Li and Natalya has fallen for Du-de-es-ta, okay?

 

[8-4-7-2]

Finally I know what some people here think about the Eternaty! I don't get your thread
It's a nice piece of witing, so have fun with it, but I will stick to the Eternaty.

btw, I don't want to start a war which thread is better; they are too diferent for that.

 

[The_Dudester]

Power levels + other stuff

Re: WAnk's comment...

I was thinking about this too - at least 2 of our characters are godlike in their area (Wolfram and Chun-Li), and Jing isn't far off... what exactly can challenge this team?
Not that I have a problem with the characters themselves, I suppose I am just being finicky about play balance

Also, I'm slightly uneasy about this large number of elemental cysts which have appeared - they are supposed to be *rare* (and also, though I didn't mention this, so I can't complain, I was intending my "charged" elemental cyst to act as a get-out clause if I was attacked -> discharging the pain and injury contained within onto my attacker). ho hum, eh?

As for the other stuff... Cammy, I understand the sharing characters point of view, and I certainly don't mind you doing this with my characters (as long as their motivations/personalities aren't changed too much). However, I don't have enough confidence in my own abilities as a writer to do the same with other people's (this is why I avoided posting much in the ensemble pieces...).
Each to their own I suppose...

Ohhh...an idea... can I create + control the evil overlord responsible for all this nasty stuff going on -> we need a good adversary

Re: website,
I am prepared to work on this and put it up in my webspace (Tripod)... if everyone else agrees. If you want anything putting up, either post it here, or email me.
Cheers!

 

[8-4-7-2]

Re: website,
I am prepared to work on this and put it up in my webspace (Tripod)... if everyone else agrees. If you want anything putting up, either post it here, or email me.
Cheers!

Vortex you m0! Why did you give them the idea of having a website too? Look at my sig!!

 

[Vortex]

Hearing 8-4-7-2 call him a m0, Vortex runs towards 8-4-7-2 picking up helpless Llama which he proceeds to beat 8-4-7-2 around the head with, before finishing him off with a solar beam to wherever his species keep their reproductive organs.

OK then, maybe u shouldn't create a website.

 

[Wolf Blackstar]

You know, you're right - we need some real evil characters to balance things out.

]LoL[Wolf|PuF

enjoy

 

[PsychoMoggieBagpuss]

Hello people

I'm just tidying up some more stuff which I'll then post after this god dialogue thing has finished (don't want to break up the story flow by posting something else thats happening in the middle of a conversation)

The way my character (called Asteph'theroc Draco) is developing at the moment he's one of a couple of options ..... not sure which one yet (it all depends on how the story turns out ).

As you've probably picked up from my first post he's the remaining survivor of an ancient advanced race. He's pretty damn powerful (hey he's just decimated a village on his own) and wracked with inner torments over what he has to do to accomplish his mission.
These are the known facts about Asteph'theroc Draco

1) The rest of his race (and his soulmate Llaeresil) sacrificed themselves to preserve the world (and all it's creatures ... even those primative ape things that eventually evolved into man) from a great evil. Somehow he survived (either intentionally or unintentionally .. not sure yet). Whatever they attempted to do in the last great battle either went horribly wrong, or worked partially but with dire consequences (thats why there isn't any of his race left ).

2) This evil has returned (and no it's not LK , though Khaine is a focal point for the cataclysmic events that will soon be occuring).

3) Has a deep residing respect and love for all living things ...though this will not stop him doing (what he sees) as neccessary (see point 4)

4) Utterly ruthless towards completing his mission (see below). Whilst he may hate himself for the horrors he may inflict on others (though he never harms/kills uneccessarily) he will carry on, and may do them again if it will enable him to successfully complete his mission.

5) The only knowledge that humans/demihumans/etc have about his race are incomplete unaccurate myths/legends (portraying them as evil beings of great power), partially due to the efforts of the "great evil" that has being removing all traces of there histroy or grossly distorting it over the last couple millenia.
Needless to say this will make my characters meetings with the others rather amusing, as if they have heard of my characters race (which is highly unlikely), or even recognise him for what he is (even more unlikely), they will probably attempt to attack (very silly thing to do ) before attempting dialogue.

Mission (1= Highest priority - takes precedance over 2,3 etc)

1) Prevent the evil from returning

2) Destroy the evil if the above fails (which will be pretty damn hard as it took all the members of his race last time).

3) "Rescue" his people. Now this "rescue" is entirely subjective to how they sacrificed themselves last time. If what they did cost them their lives, it's going to involve a hell of a lot of resurrecting of people dead over several millenia ago. Which will be hard.
If however they are not dead, but stuck in some wierd other dimension since the great battle, the "rescue" means freeing them from there captor (probably the same "great evil"), whose been torturing them over the last couple of millenia. Which will also be damn hard to do.
I prefer the latter , though this would never happen until we're almost at the end of the story (and after a few quests to get obscure/unique items from heavily guarded/trapped treasure hordes/strongrooms that will be needed to attempt to free his people).



Now for how he fits into the story.

1) The other characters mistake (or is it a mistake?) him for the "great evil" and spend their time chasing him/attempting to kill him for quite a while, thus allowing this "great evil" to strengthen its hold on the world, before they realise there mistake. As my character will at first appear to be completely amoral/cruel/murderous/evil (apart from his inner monologue and the fact he weeps each time he takes a life) towards people who interfere with his mission this will be quite an easy mistake to make (as none of the other characters can read an "inner monologue", unless they happen to be mind readers )

2) He recognises some (or maybe all) of that group have powers, or are powers, that will be needed to turn the fight against the "great evil" and either aids them surreptiously or gives them utter hell in the believe that "that which does not kill us, makes us stronger" and that they need to be toughened for the upcoming apocalypse (this will also make the above paragraph slightly more belivable )

3) Ummmm ..... I'm out of ideas ... anyone got any other alternatives?


If you're looking for a comparasion in modern fantasy literature, Asteph'theroc Draco is a cross between
1) Tomas the Valheru (see Raymond Feists "Magician")
2) Kevin Landwaster (see Stephen Donaldsons "The chronicles of Thomas Covenant")
3) Rand Al'Thor (see Robert Jordans "The Wheel of Time" - more the later books though)
4) Ineluki the Storm King (see Tad Williams's "Dragonbone Chair", "Stone of Farewell" and "To Green Angel Tower"


but a lot more ruthless and single minded towards completing his mission.


Anyway post away people and tell me what you think.

 

[Omega-Seven]

IMHO

I want to start by reminding everyone this is all In My MOST humble opinion.

Re: Cammy's response on character development and WAnk's Thoughts on Godlyism

Actually, these two topics are what bothered me the most recently (i haven't kept up past few days, midterms and work=P)

I used to be a Game Master for Rifts rpg by Palladium. It was great...Magic Psionics, Tech, and so on... the veriety of available races and 'classes' and spells and locales and so forth was absolutely astounding. And I'm rather used to playing/running a group of 'High level' World-Savers. In my previous campaign, all the characters were descendents travelling through different dimensions Seeking certain crystals (blah blah). Case in point, One of the Characters was an Adult dragon (he started as a baby though). He had something on the order of 6000 MDC (with 1 Mega Damage Capacity point being roughly equivalent to 1000 Hit Points).

So you can see, our games tended to get a little carried away with city-leveling power. And perhaps in that aspect, Jing-Alucard is a little too powerful. He basically has a lot of unlimited power, and no vulnerabilities (granted he's more or less modeled from the Anime Vampire Hunter D...). That was a mistake on my part, and I was planning for a way to gracefully retire him.

Which brings me to the other point. At least three of us are trying to take this story in conceivably different directions, though we intend to arrive at the same destinations. I had originally intended for the Lich to be an extremely powerful main nemesis who intended to retrieve the eyes of the Dragon to replace his own eyes...and become godlike in doing so. However, that idea was rather off handedly dashed by the High Priestess. C'est la vie.

Chun-Li, I think, Is quite possibly the most all powerful character in the group. Able to raise the dead within a day (actually, this is irrelevant as i doubt any of us were seriously going to write ourselves dying and just kinda hope someone could do something) and heal life threatening wounds with a snap, while possessing martial fighting ability... in (apparent) constant contact with an all-powerful and all-knowing deity... and possessing a gem which can obliterate all evil within a 1000 foot radius. And she's sexy. The people in my old game would have slapped each other around for a character like that (and actually, it would have been fun to watch that =)

Again, I have no problems with super-powerful characters (did I mention one of my players collected all of Osirus' body parts, and upon dying became the Ressurection of Osirus? Of course, he had to give up that character at that point...) but it seems to me that the rest of us become superfluous...as do any evil. =/

My biggest problem, however, is this... I don't really believe in putting words in other people's mouths, so to speak (no pun...). I'm uncomfortable with doing so, because each of us perceives our own character in a certain way, and as having a certain personality. I perceived Alucard/Jing as an Upper class, noble...silent, serious, almost emotionless...the son of dracula...dead set on destroying evil. But Wolfr4m had him cracking a joke... (also, I hadn't intended the healer to live, but he didn't really matter one way or the other) which to me is out of character. <shrug> IMHO, only the creator knows best how to role-play his own character... I don't really have any of the other characters saying or doing anything in the other posts, simply because this is my view of things.

But there is the overall problem of not having a DM-like story-teller (although that would add complexity and problems all it's own)... None of us would ever really lose a battle or die or lose a limb or get money stolen or..... etc. moreover, like i said, the story will be going in different directions all at once. I don't think I really have a problem with this either; it'd be like playing diablo... there' isn't really a central story (to speak of), just a band of powerful adventurers kicking the crap out of evil in the name of fun (because holy isn't always so very entertaining).

I think though, very soon I will write Alujingcard out of the story...I might replace him with a more balanced character, but that remains to be seem because i just bought Baldur's Gate 2 and my Half-Elven Summoneress has the cutest psuedo-dragon for a familiar =)

I think that's pretty much all i had to say. I hope no ones' feelings got hurt, or anything like that...everything was my honest take and view on what was happeneing, and was in my most humble opinion. and we all have differing opinions that we are entitled to.

 

[The_Dudester]

Jing - I agree totally with your post above...(although Du-de-es-ta was intended to be more play balanced from the start - which is why he needed a one use get-out clause if he was attacked by big nasty things

Nice writing out of Jing/Alucard btw - nice to finally see a evil character actually beating everyone up!

 

[PsychoMoggieBagpuss]

Hey Dudester,

If you want to retire your character either post here or email me and we'll work out a way for my character to either kill him, or render him useless for an appropriate time span (I'm feeling very creative ). Maybe something along the lines of mistaken identity, wrong place at the wrong time or even my character seeing the elemental cyst (or what it contains) as a threat towards his mission, your character refuses to hand it over, so then Asteph'theroc incapacitates you taking it of you. Or even having your character getting involved in a fight, the elemental cyst breaking and all the stuff its absorbed being focused on you instantaneously ... though this would probably be rather messy (and highly amusing )
This could also cause Chun-Li to "lose" her faith (due to the death of her brother) and thus removing the whole god thing from the story line, as well as been a good role playing opportunity for Cammy.

Anyway tell me what you think (of this post and the one I posted above).

Toodles,


PMB
International Jetsetter and Wannabe Pornstar
(foregoing hugearse sig)

 

[Cammy]

RumpleForeskin, I think I will let Kuan-Yin give your Asteph'theroc character a very sharp slap in the wrist if he were to attempt any of the above.

Then again, I think maybe I'd let Kuan-Yin smile in omniscience at it all, knowing that it's all part of a big plan involving Asteph'theroc himself (without his realizing it, of course ), in which eventually all will turn out well with Chun-Li and her brother re-united (and Asteph'theroc's race all resurrected ). Now, I haven't made up my mind yet which option I'm going to use (if indeed I don't come up with a third), so don't start planning too much yet!

BTW, Asteph'theroc strongly reminds me of Elric, the albino prince and last lord of a dying ancient race created by Michael Moorcock.

and possessing a gem which can obliterate all evil within a 1000 foot radius.

NOT YET!! The left and right eyes must be combined first! (I'm going to make it very hard to do that, too -- maybe our heroes must find someone or go to a certain place, etc.) At present the merry bunch only has the Right Eye, and the left one is smashed and must be restored first! Ah, well, guess I'll have to hurry up and send a post soon explaining in detail the Eyes of the Golden Dragon...

 

[Cammy]

Oh, and don't forget, without mana, Chun-Li's a pretty helpless chick. She's not invulnerable, okay?

 

[LordKhaine]

Oh, and don't forget, without mana, Chun-Li's a pretty helpless chick. She's not invulnerable, okay?

Hmmmmmmm

 

[Wolf Blackstar]

Hi guys, sorry I haven't posted anything for a while. I've got one more midterm to finish slaving over and then I can come back and write more.

It's good to see you guys discussing all these problems and solutions, though - this is one thing I wanted from the start was to have people be committed to the story and their characters, on a far deeper level than a story like the USS Eternaty.

]LoL[Wolf|PuF

 

[Cammy]

Good luck in your midterms, Wolfie boy.

All right, about the Eyes of the Golden Dragon...

Once upon a time , there was an evil dragon who caused a lot of harm to many people. Then one day he chanced upon a lecture given by the goddess Kuan-Yin to a congregation of monks, and something in the goddess' words touched a chord in his heart. The dragon became filled with remorse for his evil deeds and tore out his own eyes, appealing to Kuan-Yin to accept them as a token of his penitence. The compassionate goddess accepted them and restored his sight while charging him with the duty of regulating the weather to ensure the proper ripening of crops in Unrealm, and as a result of his penitence his scales all became gold while his two original eyes became imbued with massive powers. This was the origin of the Eyes of the Golden Dragon.

The Left Eye appears as a large, round, flawlessly cut ruby, and is feminine by nature. Three times a day it can be used to heal absolutely any adverse condition suffered by any living things (one at a time only), except evil creatures and beings of a supernatural kind, and except death by old age and death which has taken place for more than a day. It also constantly regenerates the life and mana of any living being within a 12-foot radius, though again with the exception of evil creatures and beings of a supernatural kind.

The Right Eye appears as a large, flawlessly cut sapphire, and is masculine by nature. Its healing powers are somewhat less potent than those of its sister gem, but it also has different powers of its own. Three times a day it can be used to do a mass-heal of all living things within a 12-foot radius, though the healing is useless against any injuries of a normally permanent nature. Again, the limits apply as to the types of living things that can be healed. The healing radius can be extended to 60 feet, but then only two mass-heals on the same day will be possible. Or it can go all-out to 100 feet, but only one mass-heal on the same day will be possible. Also, all living things within a 12-foot radius of the gem will receive a constant benediction whereby their chances of being hit, killed or adversely affected by any hostile agency are drastically reduced. (Again, doesn't apply to supernatural evil beings.) The Right Eye also can protect itself, unlike its sister gem: it automatically erects about itself an energy shield whenever any evil supernatural being comes within 12 feet of it. Only the most powerful of all evil beings can ever hope to penetrate this shield, and even then only at the cost of suffering enormous personal injury and losing all their powers for a full day.

Both gems can be physically destroyed, but so long as one gem is intact it will always be possible to restore the other. To do this, at least one small particle of the broken gem must be kept within 12 feet of the other for seven times seven days (breaks in between are allowed). So far there has always been at least one gem intact. And according to legend, the two gems can be combined to form an absolutely indestructible Third Eye of the Golden Dragon, which would have all the powers of the original two gems, now greatly augmented, plus the power of utterly destroying all evil within a 1000-foot radius once a day. Just how the two can be combined: that is another story...

[Edited by Cammy on 11-05-2000 at 10:36 AM]

 

[Omega-Seven]

Wolf

I see SOMEONE has gotten their hands on BG2...

You know, I had originally thought to make this world 4 times the size of earth, with a proportionately greater amount of landmass. So in actuality, there could be several separate/unrelated adventures occuring at the same time. Or perhaps their moon is not the same as ours: it has atmosphere, and life. But, having lower gravity, the life their was able to advance technologically much faster, but are far weaker in terms of "Strength" and "constitution" as BG2 players might understand it....

Just a thought.

I might want to rewrite a character in...but...that would largely depend. And also, where the hell are all the other posters? =P

 

[Wolf Blackstar]

http://www.angelfire.com/games/UTstuff/images/Wolfram1.GIF

it is a bit beefy for a 56k, I guess. Sorry...

[Edited by Wolf Blackstar on November 17th, 2000 at 11:38 AM]

 

[Cammy]

Gosh, Wolf, that pic took eons to download...

And also, where the hell are all the other posters?

I was about to ask that of you, Jing. When are you going to start contributing to the thread again? Huh?

As for the others... Ah, well, guess they've lost interest... Hopefully the RPG thread won't end up as an exchange between just Wolf and you and me, and nobody else...

BTW, do you fellas reckon it would be a good idea to let our RPG go into print someday?

[Edited by Cammy on November 17th, 2000 at 08:14 AM]

 

[The_Dudester]

Well, I haven't lost interest... but I do feel at the moment I cannot contribute anything on the level of you other posters...

I might start again with another character soon, if I can thing of anything good enough.

(I have been reading every update so far...